http://news.yam.com/afp/international/200803/20080313821219.html
法國一次世界大戰最後老兵辭世 享年110歲
法新社╱曹宇帆 2008-03-13 22:35
（法新社巴黎十三日電）法國總統沙柯吉說，最後一位打過第一次世界大戰的法國退伍老兵龐帝斯里昨天辭世，享年一百一十歲。這位老兵是義大利移民，曾經為了加入外籍兵團而謊報年齡，並曾打過壕溝戰。
龐帝斯里逝世於巴黎郊外的克里姆林-畢塞特區的家中，臨終時女兒隨侍在側。一九一四年至一九一八年間的戰事導致歐洲分裂，有八百多萬官兵為法國浴血奮戰，最後辭世的龐帝斯里為其中一位。
回憶戰時的經驗，他曾說：「你朝著一個作父親的人開槍，戰爭愚蠢至極。」
沙柯吉向這位最後的「勇士（poilu）」表達崇高敬意。自拿破崙時代起，法國步兵被賦予這親切的暱稱。
他在聲明稿中說：「今天，我表達國家深深的感激與無限的哀思。」
沙柯吉說：「我向這位來到巴黎謀生，並選擇加入法國籍的義大利男孩致敬。一九一四年八月，他為加入外籍兵團，捍衛國家，而謊報自己的年齡，他當時才十六歲。之後在一九二一年，他再度決定永久居留在法國。」
龐帝斯里過世不滿二個月前，卡澤納夫為倒數第二位逝世的法國一次世界大戰倖存軍人，享壽也是一百一十歲。
德國最後一位一次世界大戰退伍老兵也在今年元月辭世。
目前全球仍在世的一次大戰退伍老兵共有九位。在這場戰爭中，法國、英國、俄羅斯及隨後參戰的美國，最後戰勝德國、奧匈帝國與土耳其為首的鄂圖曼帝國。
造成約一千一百萬人死亡的多數戰事大部份發生在法國北部，其特色是恐怖的壕溝戰。
在鞋盒裡保存許多勳章的龐帝斯里，過去曾堅持不要把他的死當作國家大事。
但在政府勸說後，他近來態度軟化，並說他願意「代表陣亡者」接受這項榮譽。
一項追悼龐帝斯里的彌撒將於十七日在「巴黎傷兵院」舉行，沙柯吉也將出席。拿破崙的墳墓也設在這座具歷史意義的古蹟內。
一八九七年十二月七日，龐帝斯里出生於靠近義大利北部的貝托拉村。貧困使他九歲時隻身離開家鄉到法國尋求新生活。他認為這個鄰國是「天堂」。
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/080312/8/4fbf.html
Last French World War I veteran dies at 110
Thursday March 13, 08:02 AM
PARIS (AFP) - The last French veteran of World War I, an Italian immigrant who lied about his age to join the Foreign Legion and fight in the trenches, died Wednesday aged 110, President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Lazare Ponticelli, the last of more than eight million men who fought under French colours in the 1914-18 war that tore Europe apart, died at the home he shared with his daughter in Kremlin-Bicetre, a Paris suburb.
Reflecting on his wartime experiences, he once said: "You shoot at men who are fathers: war is completely stupid."
President Sarkozy led tributes to the last "poilu," the affectionate nickname meaning hairy or tough given to French foot soldiers since Napoleonic times.
"Today, I express the nation's deep emotion and infinite sadness," he said in a statement.
"I salute the Italian boy who came to Paris to earn his living and chose to become French, first in August 1914, when he lied about his age to sign up at 16 for the Foreign Legion to defend his adopted homeland. Then a second time in 1921, when he decided to remain here for good," Sarkozy said.
Ponticelli's death came less than two months after that of the penultimate French survivor of the 1914-18 war, Louis de Cazenave, who was also 110 years old.
Germany's last veteran from World War I also died in January this year.
Now there are just nine living veterans worldwide of the conflict which France, Britain, Russia and later the United States, eventually won against Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Turkish-led Ottoman Empire.
Much of the fighting, which left around 10 million dead, happened in northern France and was characterised by horrific trench warfare
Ponticelli, who kept his many war medals in a shoe box, had long insisted that he did not want his death to be marked by a national event.
But he recently relented after government pressure, saying he would accept the honour "in the name of those who died."
A mass, to be attended by Sarkozy, will be held Monday as part of the national homage to the "poilu" at Les Invalides, the historic Paris military hospice that also houses the tomb of Napoleon, said officials, who did not state the cause of his death.
Ponticelli was born on December 7, 1897, near the northern Italian village of Bettola. Poverty drove him to leave home, alone, at the age of nine to seek a new life in France, the neighbouring land he considered to be "paradise."
He worked in Paris as a paperboy and chimney sweep before signing up for the French Foreign Legion in the autumn of 1914. By December he was at the front line in the eastern Argonne forest.
"At the first attack.... we were immediately decimated because we didn't have trenches. The Germans did, but we didn't," he said of his first taste of battle.
But he did get to spend a few months in the trenches before political events changed the course of his army career.
In May 1915, after Italy had joined the war on the side of France and its allies, he was sent to the Alps to fight alongside his compatriots against the Austrians. He spent the rest of the war there.
He returned to France after the war and in 1921, along with two of his brothers, set up a piping company. That company, called Ponticelli Brothers, continues today and now counts 4,000 employees.
Ponticelli, who gave many talks about the war in schools, took French nationality in 1939. He regularly attended Armistice Day ceremonies to mark the end of World War I, and was at the last one in his hometown last November.
He will be buried Monday after the ceremony at Les Invalides in the family vault in a cemetery in Ivry-sur-Seine, a Paris suburb.
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